Editor Note: This is an excerpt from Tom Purcell’s new book, “Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!” available at amazon.com. Hurricane Isabel struck Washington, D.C. hard that night. It was Sept. 18, 2003. I lived in Alexandria, Virginia, …

Throughout American history presidents have often used religious rhetoric for various reasons: to provide comfort and consolation, argue that God providentially directs our nation, celebrate our Christian heritage, defend democracy, hold citizens and the country accountable to transcendent standards, help accomplish their own political aims, …

When the late Norwegian Kare Prytz was trying to figure out where the Norseman Leif Ericson, who traveled to what it now America in a Viking longship in or around 1000 A.D., Prytz used a unique but quite logical way of doing it. He compared …

No parent wants to believe they could accidentally leave their kid in a hot car during the summer. But it happens every year, and it happens to good parents who love their children very much. This is a hard topic to discuss. Last summer alone, …

Every Memorial Day I attend a parade in the little town of Mercer, Pennsylvania. It’s pure Americana: flags, kids, a snow-cone stand, marching bands and veterans of wars past processing down the street. Every year, one exhibit always strikes me: a car with a placard …

Call us nuts, but the Nesler family is once again going to venture into the world of dog ownership. Yeah I know, we all hear about how great it is to have a dog and how lovable they are and what a great companion and …

One day in April 2004 my husband of 45 years, L. Howard Moss III, laid down for a nap, woke up, did not know who I was, and never knew again. This was our abrupt entrance into the world of dementia. Not Alzheimer’s, with its …

On the last Monday of every May, Americans pause to pay tribute to those who gave their lives in the defense of their country. It was a tradition that began as Decoration Day just after the Civil War in which families would place flowers at …

Editor’s Note: A group of Boy Scouts recently wrote letters to the editor during Beth Bruce’s Communications class at Merit Badge University, held recently at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville. Below are the letters that were submitted. Dear editor: Boy Scouts …

We’re having “the talk” at our house. Not the sex talk, but the “death” talk. Gary, Kaylee and I went to my mom’s for a later Mother’s Day weekend, and she told me about some things she wanted taken care of, when she passes away. …

Last year on Memorial Day, my wife, daughter and I were touring Cambridge, England. We took a bus ride three miles out of the city to the U.S. military cemetery there, one of 25 American burial grounds administered by the U.S. government on foreign territory. …

As Memorial Day approached, memories flooded Randall’s mind. He lifted the polished gun down from its place on the wall. It reminded him of a fateful decision. Rounding a bend in the small valley, he and his men had come under enemy fire, and found …